White House staffers found out about Biden quitting 2024 race on X: Reports

US President Joe Biden’s decision to end his re-election campaign stunned several of his campaign staffers and White House officials who believed that he would remain in the race.

They were informed about Biden’s decision just one minute before he posted the announcement on X. At 1:45 pm on Sunday, Biden’s senior staff were informed of his decision to drop his re-election campaign. At 1:46 pm, the announcement was posted on Biden’s X handle. And more interestingly, Biden’s staffers came to know about his decision by seeing his tweet.

“We are all finding out by tweet. None of us understand what’s happening,” one Democrat close to the matter told Politico. “He (Biden) told the senior team right before. I’m sure they didn’t want it to leak,” a source close to the campaign told The New York Post.

At his beach house in Delaware where Biden was recovering from Covid-19, the 81-year-old president was with some of his closest aides – Chief strategist Mike Donilon, counsellor to the president Steve Ricchetti, White House deputy chief of staff Annie Tomasini, and Anthony Bernal, senior adviser to First Lady Jill Biden.

Bidespoke multiple times with Vice President Kamala Harris, whom he would endorse as the Democratic nominee. He informed about his decision to quit the race to White House chief of staff Jeff Zients, and his longtime aide and campaign chairwoman Jen O’Malley Dillon.

A small group of senior advisors from both the White House and Biden campaign were assembled for the 1:45 pm call to make them know about Biden’s decision. A minute later, his campaign staff released the announcement on X. The whole world, even Biden’s aides, came to know about the surprise decision since then.

Meanwhile, tech billionaire Elon Musk too reacted to the White House staff coming to know about Biden’s decision and said, “White House aides learned Biden was dropping out by reading X.”

Meanwhile, eight minutes before Biden announced he was ending his candidacy, his campaign had put out an email, seeking donations for “Joe and Kamala”, according to The New York Post.

Even in Delaware, it was still business as usual just before the surprise announcement. At that time, delegates were being finalised for the upcoming Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

“I don’t think a soul in Delaware knew,” a Biden state official told the outlet.

Biden’s more junior aides were not offended by being informed so late about Biden’s decision to end his re-election bid, a source said. The 81-year-old president was facing pressure from Democrats to step aside over concerns about his age and mental fitness after last month’s feeble presidential debate performance against former President Donald Trump.

For the junior aides, it is “more of a relief that it’s over”, but in contrast, his senior aides were disappointed about not being consulted over his decision not to run again.

“There’s a lot of frustration at the senior staff who put him in this situation (and) enabled him to not have a dignified exit (from the campaign) nine months ago,” the source said.